Chapter 11

While Pete went to see Christy, Mac took advantage of Dr. Brackett's offer and used his phone to make the rest of the calls. First up was not too surprising…Jim Reed.

"Reed residence, Jean speaking"

"Jean, Bill MacDonald here. Has Jim gotten in yet?"

"Yes, Mac, he's just walking in the door. Hold on." She hands the phone to her husband.

"Yeah, Mac. What's up?"

"Just a heads up, we're at Rampart hospital. CJ was hurt pretty badly on a call and we're all here, Pete included. He's in with her right now before they move her to ICU." Before he could get anything else out, Jim spoke up.

"Mac, tell me what you need and Jean and I will make it happen." Jim knew how Pete felt about Christy and had a feeling that the feeling was definitely mutual. Jim wanted to help his best friend and partner in any way he could.

"Thanks for the offer, Jim. Right now, I just need to let the rest of the family know about what's happened. As for Pete, well you are his best friend. I know he's my friend too, but I'm also Christy's brother. That makes it a bit harder for him to talk to someone if he needs to." Mac wanted to say more, but for some reason he was starting to get slightly choked up. Jim picked up on that very quickly.

"Don't worry, Mac. I'll be there as soon as I can. Let me fill Jean on what's happening. Remember, keep the faith. From what I've seen, she's too damn stubborn not to pull through with flying colors." Jim was doing his best to sound optimistic for Mac and hoped he was convincing.

"Thanks, Jim. Right now, the rest of us are in Dr. Brackett's office so if you don't see us when you get here, that's probably where we'll be. We'll see you in a bit." With that, Mac hung up and looked at his wife of so many years.

"Mary, how in the heck am I gonna get through the rest of the calls. That one was hard enough."

She was quick with an answer. "You're not going to get through the rest of the calls…I will. Besides, all we have to do is call your brother Daniel and the rest of the family will know in about 20 minutes, if not less." Daniel MacDonald was a sound man in the family, especially since he was making an honest living as an auto mechanic with a shop in Beverly Hills. However, his wife, Delores, was a true chatterbox. She would tell the rest of the family in a matter of minutes. "Just sit there and rest for a few minutes. I'll take care of this." And with that she picked up the phone to make the call.

Meantime, Pete was sitting next to Christy, doing for her what she did for him…holding her hand. He began stroking it, though it was more for him than for her at that point. He knew he wanted to say something to her, but for whatever reason they wouldn't come out. He sat there for what seemed to be forever, but in reality was about 20 minutes. All he did was hold her hand. Whatever he might want to say just wouldn't come out. Eventually, Dr. Brackett came in and let him know it was time for her to be moved.

"Pete, don't worry. She's only going to ICU so that she can be monitored more closely. She may not be out of the woods yet, but I think she' at least a little closer to edge of the forest right now." Brackett might not have looked it, but he was sounding a bit more optimistic that before.

So, Pete stood up, kissed CJ on the cheek and whispered in her ear "come back to us sweetheart. We need you." Then, he was ushered out and back to Brackett's office. He was told, however, that once she was settled into ICU that he would be able to visit, though for only a little bit at a time.

Back in Brackett's office, he was brought up to date on the notifications. He was eternally glad that Mac decided to bring in Jim. Right then, Pete needed his best friend to help get him through this. He was scared; more scared than he cared to admit. He wanted and needed to talk to someone, but other than Jim Reed, he really didn't feel comfortable talking to anyone about this. If the subject was anything other than Christy then he would be talking Mac's ear off. However, since he was her brother, that wasn't an option…at least in his opinion.

15 minutes later, Dixie knocked on the door to admit Jim Reed to the group. "Hey, how're all of you holding up?" Jim was pretty worried himself and when he saw Mac and Mary's faces, he knew he had a real reason to be. This could go south very quickly and they all knew it.

"Well, the latest is that she will be moved to ICU soon. They want to get her a little more stabilized right now, but hopefully that won't take too much longer." Mac wasted little time in getting Reed up to speed, but also making sure he let Reed know that Pete needed to get out for a bit.

"Pete, why don't we go for a walk for a bit, huh? Maybe get some of that world famous hospital coffee that CJ has been telling us about?" Jim knew he needed to get Pete away for a talk and was hoping he would come with him. Luckily, Pete saw this for what it was and took the lifeline while he could.

"Sure, partner. Let's go." Peter Malloy tried to sound a little more upbeat, but was having a difficult time of it. So, he let Jim lead him out of the office and down the hall towards the cafeteria. It didn't take too long for Pete to open up about all of this. About 10 minutes later, he spoke.

Jim, I can't explain it. I haven't even seen her, just heard her voice, but I gotta tell ya something right now…I want to get to know her. Really get to know her. I'm feeling things that I haven't felt in a really long time and it scares me. But what really scares me is the fact that she might be feeling the same things. Yeah, I know there's no way for me to know that since I can't see her face right now. Don't ask me how I know, but I just do." Pete stopped at that point and Jim could tell that despite the fact he couldn't see his partner's eyes, he knew that his partner was scared to death about losing what might be the best thing to happen to Pete Malloy in a very, very long time.

"Pete, you've got to keep the faith on this one. Remember, she's Mac's sister and you know just how suborn he is, right?" When Jim got an acknowledgement from Jim, he continued. "Well, she strikes me as being even more so. Besides, she has a lot to live for: you, her brothers and their families, the men back at her station. I really believe you need to keep believing that she will pull through."

Pete wanted to say something in response, but they were interrupted by Dixie McCall looking for them.

"Pete, Jim; I just got word that she's been moved. You can see her for a few minutes. Right now, Mac and Mary are with her, but you can see her after that." Dixie had a look on her face that could only be described as hopeful. Jim picked up on that right away.

"Thanks, Ms. McCall. I'll get him up there now. Besides, I wanted to talk to Mac anyway about something." Jim could see Pete's face and knew he was nervous about seeing her again. Hopefully, she would be better off than earlier.

It didn't take long to get to ICU and by then, Mac and Mary had come out of her room. Mac spotted Pete and Jim right away. "Pete, she's all settled in and appears to be resting comfortably. She still hasn't regained consciousness, but hopefully that will end soon. Mary will take you in to see her. The nurses know the situation and will let you stay a bit longer with her. This way, they can keep an eye on both of you since you're still recovering yourself." It didn't take a genius to see that he was very worried about his sister, but was also equally worried about his friend and colleague in front of him.

"Thanks, Mac. Mary, care to lead on? I don't want to keep a lady waiting." Pete was trying to keep things light, but knew he was failing miserably.

A few minutes later, he was sitting in a chair next to Christy, holding her hand just like he did downstairs in the ER. He was scared; more scared than he had been before ever. He wanted to let her know things and wasn't sure how to begin. Then, he decided to just go with what was in his heart.

And so, after a few minutes, he began.

"Christy, you need to pull through this. Your family needs you, all of them including the fire department. I may not be able to see right now, but I could tell from the sound of his voice that Mac is nearly shattered with this one. He's scared, more than I have ever heard him. CJ, truth be told I'm scared too. I know what we said before about taking things slowly. We were going to wait to see how much of my sight came back. Right now, I don't care about any of that. All I care about is you pulling through this. I really didn't realize how much I care about you until now. Have to tell you, though, it's a scary feeling. Even though it's a scary feeling, I wouldn't trade it for anything in the world." With this he squeezed her hand so he could try to get his emotions back in order. Then he realized that he didn't really care if anyone saw him. The only thing he cared about was Christy. He realized that he was falling in love with her pretty hard and fast.

His emotions were almost enough to overwhelm him and due to that fact he almost missed that his hand was being squeezed. He stopped for a minute to see if what he felt was correct.

"CJ, it's me, Pete. If you can hear me, squeeze my hand again. Please." His voice had a pleading quality to it that wouldn't be missed by anyone. He also got his wish. He was rewarded with a nice, slow but steady squeeze.

However, he knew that this might be a muscle spasm and needed to test it out. He didn't notice that the door opened and Dr. Brackett entered. He was watching what was happening after hearing Pete through the door and decided to watch and wait. He would be rewarded greatly.

"CJ, do me a favor. I know you know Morse code. Squeeze out the distress call for me please. I know you can do it if you can hear me. Just the distress call" Pete was anxious at this point, knowing that if she didn't squeeze the right sequence that it was only a muscle spasm. But, he would be relieved beyond belief with what happened next.

He got three short squeezes, two long squeezes and three short squeezes again…the code for S.O.S. The smile on his face was enough to cut it in half and it didn't go unnoticed by Brackett. That's when he spoke up.

"Pete, I take it she did it?" Brackett had to get confirmation before proceeding further.

"Yeah, Doc she did. Come on CJ, come back to us sweetheart. You've got a lot of people pulling for you. I've got a few things to say to you and I need you awake for it. Come on now." Pete had to stop since his voice was cracking and he knew he was on the verge of crying, which would be a bad thing right then. However, something would stop both men in their tracks.

"Hey, you can't get rid of me that easily, Malloy. We've got unfinished business." And with that simple statement, both men began to laugh. Brackett knew he had to get Malloy out so he could examine Christy further to determine the extent of her injuries properly. So, he helped Malloy to the door, after he helped him bend down to give her a kiss on the forehead, then he got to work.